Summary
A stunning double from Fernando Torres coupled with Eden Hazard’s goal cruised the Blues to a comfortable 3-0 away win in Germany against Schalke. It was an early lead for Chelsea as a ball that curled in from the head of Ivanovic went to the far post where the Spaniard comfortably put in to the back of the net for the opener. Then, we had to wait till 2nd half for the 2nd goal and it arrived in the 68th minute in the form of Torres once again. It was a sizzling counter attacking football from Mourinho’s men as Fernando Torres got at the end of a fast paced play from Oscar and Hazard.
Not wanting to leave the pitch without a goal after a brilliant performance, Eden Hazard got his 3rd goal in 2 games with few minutes remaining. It was once again a counter attacking move as Ramires cleared the ball out of his half and Hazard got at the end of it. After driving into the area with speed and strong pace, he guided his shot into the back of the net to safely put the Blues in charge of group E after a successive of two high scoring away wins!
Now, before turning our focus to analysis and What We Learned to come shortly, let’s look at both teams starting Line-up and some stats from the game to see how both teams fared. The man of the match is clearly for Fernando Torres as the Spaniard scored twice in a brilliant performance on his 100th start for Chelsea!
Schalke 04 starting 11: Hildebrand; Uchida, Howedes (c), Matip, Aogo; Jones (Kolasinac 71), Neustadter; Clemens, Meyer (Goretzka 78), Draxler; Boateng.
Chelsea FC starting 11: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Azpilicueta; Ramires, Lampard; Hazard (Eto’o 89), Oscar (David Luiz 82), Schurrle (Mikel 71); Torres.
Speaking about the controversial surprise that Azpilicueta started on the left wing in place of the injured Ashley Cole ahead of Bertrand, Jose Mourinho said after the game, he knew that Azpi won’t be attacking since it isn’t his natural spot but, made a great contribution defensively. The preferring of the Spaniard ahead of Bertrand follows from the tactical point of view of the German’s style of play on the wing as they rely on fast paced wingers to hurt opposition. Brilliant move by Jose on that!
Match Statics (Possession stats and Goal stats)
Talking after the game overall, we made a great response from our opening match defeat against Basel and hammered Steaua Bucharest and Schalke away from home scoring 7 goals and conceding non in the process. This, as Jose said in post match interview, puts us in great condition to finish and qualify in first place of Group E. Thanks for reading our report and I sincerely apologize for some silly errors I made in the previous report for the Cardiff game. I appreciate all of the comments to correct my error. You can follow me on twitter (@FahmiCFC) and KTBFFH!!!
